Author Archives: toddaowen

post

Day 3: Alphabets and Alphabet Makers

Posted on by
Sominak Yuna

Sominak Yuna

I have a friend named Sominak who lives near Uria Village. He is gentle, intelligent, thoughtful. He has a charming way with people and immediately puts children at ease. He is a school teacher, a leader of teachers. When Angela and I first moved to Uria Village in the late 1990’s, Sominak was working with several other teachers to develop reading primers for Somau Garia speaking children. The idea was to develop a whole library of simple story books, introducing letters, vowel sounds, and simple words along the way–richly illustrated so that young minds could connect the images with the words on the page.

Sominak is gifted at taking the 16 letters of the Somau Garia alphabet and making them interesting. He is an artist who did most of the artwork for the primers, so he can draw a lot of fun cartoons on the board. Imagine having a teacher draw an amazing picture on the blackboard and letting you come forward and write the name below the picture. He knows how to draw the best out of people.

Vowels: A, E, I, O, U. Consonants: K, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, W, X, Y. These are the elements of written Somau Garia. These letters can be combined to make a story about a snake in the jungle or a man who takes off his arms and legs and head to warm them in the sun (weird) or to write Bible verses like the following, “Yesusue pa kapia xekerina kisamaira wati, nupo tatiwopi kanikina, ‘Tini nonomi weinikitari kouwa. Kakixanari taiyeri nikaku. Xuwe. Xoiteu Waiwai Purotai Wese paiya, muanum nono nikau.’ ” which in our mother tongue reads, “But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.’ ” Mark 10:14, Somau Garia translation; ESV

While Sominak’s primary role over the years has been literacy, he has given much of himself to the translation of the New Testament into the Somau Garia language. The Gospel According to Mark has been in use since 2007. The remaining 26 books await translation. Men like Sominak await their translation. The Word of God in the language of the heart has the power to transform a people.

Angela and I long to be in Papua New Guinea again soon, working alongside friends like Sominak, getting the Word out to a people needing the power of the gospel at work in their lives.

Will You Join Us?
Now through the end of 2013 we are asking God to raise up 40 new monthly financial partners, 40 new special gifts partners, and 40 new intercessory prayer partners to see the Word of God be available in the mother tongue of the Somau Garia people. If you’d like to partner financially with us in this venture of faith, you can click here to visit our Donate page where you’ll find instructions on how to do so. If you’d like to join the cadre of prayer partners, click here to drop us an email informing us of your commitment.

Thank you for reading this post. Thank you for praying. Thank you for giving of yourself to get the Word out to a precious people whom God loves very deeply.

 

post

Day 2: The Word Became Flesh . . . and the Word Came to Uria

Posted on by
We are Hishands and feet.

The last few days I’ve been writing about dreams and visions, but there is a time to take vision and give it hands and feet. That’s what God did when fulfilling the promise He’d made to Abraham all those years ago–that he would bless all nations through him.

The promise was for the Son to leave his dwelling above and make his dwelling below, on the earth. The promise was for the Son to limit himself to live life as a man: a man who tired and hungered and bled and died–and lived.

God didn’t drop a golden scroll out of the sky with which to teach mankind how to be reconciled. He sent Jesus to fulfill the promise, to walk the walk, to talk the talk, to die the death, to rise to life again. He sent Jesus to cry with widows, to laugh with wedding guests, to whip the backs of thieves selling religion in a place of prayer. He sent Jesus to heal the sick, set the oppressed free, to bind up the brokenhearted, to declare the year of the Lord’s favor. He sent Jesus to seek and save the lost.

Likewise, today, he doesn’t drop his Word out of the sky in indigenous languages throughout the world with instructions on how to be reconciled. He puts hands and feet and serious limitations upon his witnesses and He sends them out with the testimony of Jesus and with all the skills need to take an ancient set of writings and translate them into those indigenous languages. He gives hands and feet to the Life, He gives missionaries to show the Way, He gives Bible translators to show them the Truth.

Like Jesus leaving his home “country” to become hands and feet with us, so we go as Jesus did to become his hands and feet in Uria, to bring the Word to the Somau Garia people. In 2007 the Word did come to Uria, when the Gospel According to Mark was dedicated. 26 more books remain. Much life remains to be lived, tears shed, people brought to be reconciled to Him.

Pray today with us that in this season of celebration, God the Father will give the Somau Garia people reason for special celebration–by raising up 40 new monthly financial ministry partners, 40 new special needs givers, and 40 new intercessors to pray with us through the joys and sorrows of translating the New Testament into the Somau Garia language of Papua New Guinea.

What's God Calling You to Do?
If you feel the Holy Spirit tugging on your heart strings to partner with us financially, either monthly or with a special gift, click here to visit our Donate page where you will find instructions on how to do so. You can also click here to write Todd an email regarding your desire to partner. If you’d like to partner with us in prayer, click here to drop a note to Todd and Angela.

Thank you for your generosity and prayers. Pray fervently!

post

Day 1: Dream Becomes Vision Becomes Reality

Posted on by
Dreams can by misty and formless when they are becoming visions.

Dreams can be misty and formless when they are becoming a vision.

I look back and I see the dreams of yesterday, though mostly formless, possessing enough clarity to bring excitement and motivation to the dreamer. I look in the mirror and I see a very, very clarified dream, energetic and motivational and orderly. I see a vision worth living and dying for. Reflecting on the dream and living in vision, I try to picture the future–how it will all play out, what it will look like when the vision is embraced by others, transformed into something of its own by a community of fellow visioneers.

God’s dream of people from every nation, tribe, people, and language, before the throne worshiping God in gratitude for salvation, gave us our vision of going in response to God’s dream and doing our part to empower one tribe, one people speaking one language to be part of the festive throng. God-willing this vision becomes a reality for a people working and waiting for the New Testament to be available in their language.

The present reality is that the Somau Garia have only the Gospel According to Mark available to them in their mother tongue. Important, but incomplete, this is only the beginning. These dear friends need the Scriptures in their heart language to be able to grow, be transformed, to win the battle over sin and death.

I was talking with someone yesterday about how important it is to our country than men like Martin Luther and John Wycliffe and William Tyndale risked their lives to translate the Word of God into the language of the common people in their respective countries. How different all of our histories would have been had these men been to afraid to risk all to get the Scriptures into the hands of ordinary people.

Today you have a chance to participate in changing the future of an entire people through getting the Word out in their heart language. Would you join us?

How to Partner
If you’d like to be one of forty new monthly financial partners, click here to go to our Donate page. If you have any questions, you can drop Todd an email at towen@shakethegates.org. If you’d like to make a year-end, one-time special gift to help PBT get our family to Papua New Guinea, click here. If you’d like to be one of forty new intercessory prayer partners, click here and we will get you set up.

We are praying for forty new financial partners, forty new intercessors, and forty one-time gifts to help insure that the Somau Garia people will not have to wait any longer than is necessary to have the Word available in their heart language.

Thank you! and Blessings!

 

 

post

His Dream, Our Vision

Posted on by

If our dreams are intensely personal, they are also intensely fragile. But whisper a dream and the whisp might snuff it out. Our dreams are choked by the weeds of life: health or sickness, good relationships or bad ones, opportunity or lack, that which we can control and that which we cannot. Our dreams are intensely fragile.

His Dream

His dream–singular, piercing, soul-wrenching, awe-inspiring–is woven with different fabric. His dream evades capture, overcomes obstacle, penetrates enemy territory and liberates the heart of man, freeing it from enslavement to sin and self, offering life and love, even power, in its place. His dream is revealed little by little from the earliest syllables of Genesis through to the end of the Book.

It is John’s uncovering (Apocalypse) of God’s dream that speaks most powerfully to me, revealing ultimate things. “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’ “

In that day, man in all his variety and uniqueness, will be represented before the throne–praising God for salvation. Not for money or ease or convenience or entertainment. For salvation.

His dream pierces my right to be selfishly indulgent. His dream rips me from my excuses and forces me to consider the 6,877 languages and language groups of the world. His dream fixes my gaze on today’s 209 million people speaking 1,967 languages that do not have adequate access to the Bible in a language that speaks to them. If only His dream allowed me to look at faceless masses representing vast numbers of people–then I could ignore it, overwhelmed by the size of the group–but NO!!! His dream paints familiar faces on the canvas of my mind. This canvas is alive. These faces are tribal people, uttering exotic words in the mountain jungle where they live. They are our friends with whom we’ve had many adventures, joys and sorrows, victories and losses. They are our loved ones with names like Lim and Torenimas and Natika. The are people without the Bible in their heart language. They grow the coffee you drink in the morning and the chocolate you eat at Christmas. They cultivate vanilla which goes in all those wonderful holiday treats. They are people that God dreams of standing around His throne–wearing white robes, clean before his eyes. Their eyes are fixed on the Savior, on the throne, on Him.

Following the Dream

Close friends from Uria Village, Lim Auwi and his family.

Close friends from Uria Village, Lim Auwi and his family.

His dream compels us to do the same, to step forward in promise, eyes fixed on the Lamb that was slain, wavering between falling like a dead man or crying out with the throng, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. . . Here we are, Lord, send us! We will go!”

Ahead is forty days, friends. When you drink your coffee in the morning, think of the Somau Garia people, without the Word in their language. When you eat your Christmas chocolates, dream His dream and see those people gathered around the throne, eyes fixed on Jesus. When you mix up a cake or bake cookies for your loved ones, remember our loved ones on the side of Mt. Somau. When you celebrate family during these remaining forty days, take your buoyant celebration before the throne of God and cry out for the people of God’s dream. As you pour out your love to friends and family over these forty days, remember us, too. Forty new financial partners. Forty new prayer partners. Forty special gifts for getting the Word out to the Somau Garia. Pray. Love. Give. Dream. Envision.

To respond in some tangible way to this challenge, click here to visit Donate page on this website or click here drop us a note at prayer@shakethegates.org and let us know of your prayer commitment.

Blessings!

post

What’s in a Dream?

Posted on by

Dreams are intensely personal. They are expressions of our true self. What do we passionately pursue? What gives us that far away, wistful look in our eyes? What causes us to shed tears or to argue or to take risks that to most seem oddly insane? Dreams are intensely personal.

Some sequester dreams in the shadowy places of their lives. Quiet. Unnoticed. Anonymous. Free of mockery and derision. The dreams of these people occupy their quiet moments and resemble hobbies more than life-altering pursuits. These dreams are the books that never quite get written, the dragster that never quite gets built, the guitar that collects dust in the corner.

Others realize that their dreams are bigger than they are. These realize that these dreams are risky ventures, full of blind corners, pitfalls, and dragons. Their quiet moments are nervous affairs spent vacillating between fear and the potential for huge dividends. These people talk a lot about their dreams with their friends and confidantes, but ultimately it remains an exciting possibility, always just over the horizon, the dream that I’m going to get to just as soon as . . .

Then there are those who are not merely dreamers, but visionaries. The dream for them begins in the twilight pre-dawn hours and at mid-day and in the watches of the night. At first these folks closely guard the dream as they birth it, nurture it, allow it to develop. These folks are taken by the transcendent value of the dream and see that the dream reaches far beyond themselves, beyond their personal benefit, beyond even their lifetime. They too recognize blind corners, pitfalls, and dragons. They feel the butterflies. They too talk endlessly about the dream with friends and confidantes. At this point, the dream transforms into something God-sized, powerful, and compelling . . .

The dream becomes a vision. The dream moves beyond friends, beyond personal acquaintances, beyond close community. The dream ceases to be the sole property of the dreamer, the nurturer, the talker, the motivator. It takes on a life of its own and becomes the property of the community, the network, the . . . generation?

Angela and I once had a dream. We dreamed of living cross-culturally, taking the Word to the far reaches, to the remote, the lost, the forgotten of the world. That dream grew beyond the two of us and birthed something far greater than we would ever have imagine. It became a vision that took us across the world and played itself out over a decade of love and hardship and challenge and hard work. We had to shelf that vision for a while and it was relegated to the role of dream for six years.

illuminated bible

Dream has once again become vision–a vision that I think has the potential to capture your imagination and change the course of your life, not just ours. This vision bears an impact that will span generations and impact the future of an entire culture. This vision bears an impact that will change how you think when you eat your breakfast, read your Bible, eat a chocolate bar, drink your coffee. The vision–I don’t think that I’m speaking too boldly–has the potential to impact how you relate to God himself.

Beginning Friday, November 22, we begin a 40 day period of fleshing out the vision, bringing it to life and inviting you to be changed by it, to set in motion an impact that will change a culture for generation upon generation.

Tomorrow I want to share a dream that is worth living and dying for . . . join me here for an exciting first step into the vision.

post

Please Pray — November 19, 2013

Posted on by

Passionate prayer is often motivated by desperation. Let us just say that Angela and I (Todd) are offering a lot of passionate prayers these days. My trip to Papua New Guinea (in September) was a stark reminder of the condition of my friends living in the foothills of the Finisterre Mountains of Papua New Guinea–without the Word of God in their heart language and desperate to get it. I saw their need starkly contrasted against the fruit and power of the New Testament being available to another language group–a people with a vibrant faith, passionate about the Lord. The difference was . . . sobering.

Reunion of Todd and close Garia friend, Lim

Reunion of Todd and close Garia friend, Lim

The Somau Garia have waited long enough. Neither they nor we can wait any longer. Desperate to get to Papua New Guinea and engage the task of finishing the translation of the remaining 26 books of the New Testament (Mark was dedicated Easter, 2007) we have put together a 40-Day campaign, 40 Days to Getting the Word Out . Beginning on Friday, November 22, we will be sharing vital information, writing emails, making phone calls, making a huge end of the year push to sign up 40 new monthly financial partners, 40 special gifts partners, and 40 prayer partners to join the team. During these forty days of the holiday season, we will be sharing podcasts, telling our story on Shake the Gates Radio (here on the website), and telling the kinds of missionary stories that help inform, inspire, and mobilize the people of God.

Please, friends, join us in prayer beginning even today.

  • Ask God to open the eyes of many new partners to the needs of this nearly forgotten people.
  • Ask God to use this 40 day campaign to awaken the hearts and minds of His people and mobilize them to address the Biblelessness (there’s a word!) of the Somau Garia people of Papua New Guinea.
  • Ask God to grant us favor and influence with those whom He is asking us to challenge in this way.
  • Thank God for his generosity in caring for both our family and the Somau Garia people in this interim that we’ve been away.
  • Thank God for what He will do in this forty days.

I also ask you to pray for the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit in our life during this forty days. Only He can convict and woo and deeply call the hearts of His people to this kind of partnership: impactful, transformational, lasting. Only He can draw the hearts of those whom He desires for this calling.

This is a desperate hour in the history of this people–pray fervently and passionately!

post

Please Pray — 24 October 2013

Posted on by

Thank You for Praying

Many of you prayed along with our family through 40 Days to Freedom. I can’t thank you enough for the commitment, the kindness, and the impact you made in making that sacrificial journey with us. Since returning to the States I’ve taken time to process and reflect on the lessons learned and to thank God for his kindness in taking me on that journey with Him. He helped renew many things, one of which was joy, the kind that is born of purpose and in walking consistently with the way He made me. This rediscovered joy has ignited fresh passion and vision for God and his Kingdom.

The 40 day season of prayer has come and gone. (For an audio update, click here .)  Now it is time to do the harder work of asking God for power to complete the passion, to drive the vision, to bring us once again to Papua New Guinea for service. Would you pray with us regularly toward this end? If you pray for us regularly or would like to do so, would you drop me a line at prayer@shakethegates.org ? In the mean time, would you lift these things heavenward?

Ask God

  • Ask God to provide many, many opportunities for us to share the story, invite others to join the team, and to encourage the saints.
  • Ask God to raise up partners for Bible translation among the Somau Garia people of Papua New Guinea.
  • Ask God to ignite our passion, empower our spirits, and catalyze our actions in order that we might get to the field as soon as possible.
  • Ask God to provide for our physical, social, spiritual, and financial needs.

Thank God

  • Thank God for going ahead of us in all things.
  • Thank God for providing each month for our needs.
  • Thank God for his provision of righteousness through Jesus Christ, without whom we would have no opportunity to be reconciled to God.
post

Impact: 40 Days of Prayer

Posted on by

Prayers Over the Pacific

The airplane was somewhere over the Pacific. It was dark, we were into the tenth hour of a fifteen-and-a-half hour flight and I was restless. Running through my mind  was this notion of 40 Days to Freedom. I was thinking of the prayers that had been lifted heavenward on our behalf and were being lifted even as sped across the Pacific at 500 knots. How would God answer these prayers? Would we see immediate impact or would this be a season of seed planting? What did God have in mind for this time, this journey, this group of praying people?

I slid the questions into an unused corner of my heart and went to sleep for a while. I would grab them later when I could put them to use.

Prayer Along the Road

Fast forward to a bumpy road in the mountains of Madang Province. Though it was early the sun was already hot. The greenery whizzed by on both sides of the truck as we made our way toward Uria. The questions started jiggling loose and flopping around in my consciousness as we bumped through potholes and rough spots in the road. Memories flooded my mind at every turn in the road and through each pass in the mountains. “How will you answer these prayers, Father?” Kablooey. Flat tire. In the middle of nowhere. Probably wasn’t my idea of answered prayer. A group of road workers happened by a few minutes later, jacked the truck up and changed the tire. We started rolling again. Flop. Swish. Flop. Swish. The rhythmic thumping and hissing of another flat tire–no spare this time. We sat on the edge of the road. I whipped out a mobile phone and texted my wife in the U.S. “Have people pray. We are stranded.” The prayers went out. Pray-ers prayed. Along came a truck filled with people who recognized me–they were wontoks (one-talks); Somau Garia friends. They loaded up our driver, our blown out tire, and were off to town. A few hours later we were back on the road to the village.  Those flat-tire prayers were impactful. I believe that the prayers offered gave extra oomph to what was discussed, what was decided, even in setting up conditions so that Jesus’ name will be honored when we return and get moving with the translation again. I also believe that a younger generation of Somau Garia speakers will be engaged and involved in the process of translation and literacy because of answer to those prayers and perhaps even due to the delay in starting the meeting caused by the tires blowing out.

Prayer With Impact

A week later I found myself in Tiap Village, where Aruamu is spoken, talking with the Lord. “Father, how will you answer prayers in this place?” No flat tires here. Events were less mundane. As I was preaching one evening, some young men were sitting together somewhere up the village, away from where we were gathered. They were absolutely astounded at what they had heard. “How is this guy reading our minds?” they were saying to each other. As we prayed and I preached the Holy Spirit was doing his work of conviction. He did this consistently. In four nights of preaching, nine were baptized and over 250 were prayed for as they responded to the conviction and leading of the Holy Spirit. A common theme emerged in the responses: a call to unity of the believers; to stand together and go forth with the Good News.

Thank You

The Father honored your commitment to pray (and some of you fast) for forty days. He responded to your cries by moving in the deep places of hearts and cultures to make an ongoing impact. Thank you for your partnership in these days of wonder.

post

40 Days to Freedom Podcast Update

Posted on by

The 40 Days to Freedom Podcast Update is not only the story of people who prayed for a mission trip, it is the story of a God who answered prayer after prayer after prayer. Please take a few minutes to be encouraged and inspired to engage in the adventure of prayer!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

post

Dickens on My New Guinea Experience

Posted on by

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . . It was a season of Light, it was a season of Darkness . . .it was a spring of hope, it was a winter of despair . . .” Dickens opened The Tale of Two Cities with these lines.

These famous words reveal Dickens’ familiarity with Biblical truth. Pause, even for a moment, and think of your life and you may find wonder and terror swirled together–one of the greater ironies of life, evidenced in the heroism of first responders that stood out in high relief against the rubble of 9/11 or the immediate international response to the 7.0M earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010.

As August closed, I once again walked the soil of Papua New Guinea. I smelled the smoke rising from burning, dry mountain sides (preparations for a new garden season), choked on the dust kicked up by scores of four-by-fours plunking through potholes in Madang town, and listened to dozens of languages floating on the tide of evening. Memories hung in my mind like mist in the mountain valleys of New Guinea.

Some memories lend themselves to Dickens-like sentiments. There was the afternoon I passed by the front gates of Modilon Hospital. I was sharing a ride with my co-worker Marsha and a few other people. As we passed by there was a brief silence followed by an outpouring of remembrance: the last time we’d been in the same vehicle at that spot I was rushing her late husband, John, to the emergency room to get help,crashing through gates that had the audacity to be closed when I needed them open! The horror of that night was offset by the heavenly presence of Jesus standing in our midst as 25 of us stood around the foot of our fallen brother’s bed and sang “Majesty”. Jesus’ glory shined through the disjointed emotions, the disbelief of what we’d just witnessed, the need to see through tomorrow, to help our sister make it through the night.

There was the day that my friend William and I, along with a few others, drove to a market near Uria Village. It’d been six years since I’d been in Uria, walked the mountain paths, or visited the houses of my friends, playing at humor in a third language. That day was an odd amalgam of suspense and peace. Arriving at the marketplace along the main road we parked the truck and made the 2 kilometer hike into the village. There was a hue of tension underlying the smiles as I approached the village. Our house had been pillaged and my tools stolen in the six years we were away. I suppose every one felt a little guilty and weren’t entirely sure whether or not I would involve the police in the matter–which could turn out badly for them if I chose to do so. Of course I felt the butterflies. I didn’t know what to expect or what my discoveries would mean to the future of Bible translation with these people. The house was a mess, lots of expensive things missing, but basically fixable. I didn’t spend a lot of time in the house. Tears welled up as I landed at the bottom of the steps.

Lim Auwi and Todd Owen talk as they walk to a village meeting.

Lim Auwi and Todd Owen talk as they walk to a village meeting.

Awaiting me was my friend, neighbor, and clan “brother”, Lim. His face was downcast, his arms open. I approached him and he wrapped his arms around me and wept, and wept, and wept. When the tears subsided, he stepped back. “We thought we’d never see your family again. You’re back!” I was speechless. We walked quietly to the open air pavilion where we would meet with the others. Apologies. Promises of cooperation. Angry words from some. Finally a commitment to stand behind the translators and behind our family. “Your sons are our sons. Your daughters are our daughters. We will watch over them.” As we ate together the mood lightened. I showed pictures of Angela and the kids. Everyone ooh-ed and ah-ed over the photos of the boys. They had grown up in those six years, sporting beards and looking very much like the young men that they are. Stories of our kids’ younger years were told, laughter was heard all around. Smiles. . . there it was . . . I saw it. An abiding love for our family overshadowed by fear of rejection and retribution. The worldview of fear emerged ever so subtly. Oh that they would be free of fear! Love and deep grief congealed in my heart to form compassion.

A few days later I found myself in Tiap Village. I was reunited with old friends and made new ones. Steven is a friend of many years with whom I’ve walked many deep valleys. Pius, a new friend, smiles easily though he has known many trials for his faith. Pastor John, terse and intense brought much joy to my heart as he lead worship without restraint and as he gave himself to literacy work and discipleship,  eager to move the Kingdom of God forward. The Aruamu leaders recognize the razor’s edge that they walk, having given themselves to the translation and propagation of the gospel. Though the New Testament in Aruamu has been available since 2005, there is always the risk that they won’t be used. “Our people won’t change if they don’t have a hunger and thirst for God’s Word . . . we must pray and ask God to give more hunger and thirst . . .” These men put work with their prayers.

Todd, Pius, and Steven at Tiap 2013

Todd, Pius, and Steven at Tiap Village, September 2013

I feel their angst as they give themselves to bring their people to an awareness and love for the Word of God. They are working tirelessly toward finishing translation of the Old Testament. I was honored to share ministry with them and to share in the battle that they are fighting for the souls of men and women.

I’m grateful to God for using both the Somau Garia and the Aruamu to bring a thawing in my heart, to bring me to a spring of hope. The fire in my heart had begun to dim and cool in the wake of fatigue, sickness, and persistent, overwhelming challenge over a course of years. The fire burns bright today.

Dickens wrote about the spring of hope and the winter of despair. These two peoples of Papua New Guinea have known centuries of despair and fear. Perhaps the frost is thawing, the Son is shining, and a spring of hope is proceeding from the long years of darkness. May it be that through the ministries associated with Bible translation we might be heralds of hope!